The worst fear of a father: the loss of one of his children

The mourners began sharing the names of the victims of the Texas shooting on Tuesday.

Police have not yet released a list.

Jailah Silguero, 10, is the youngest of four children, the “baby” of her family, according to her father.

She wants to go to school and see her friends.

On Tuesday, he was one of those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

On Monday night, Jailah told her father, Jacob Silguero, 35, that she wanted to stay home on Tuesday.

This was unusual for him, and in the morning, Silguero said, he seemed to have forgotten it.

He got dressed and went to school as usual.

“I can’t believe this happened to my son, my baby,” she said.

He added: “It’s always been one of my fears, the loss of a child.”

Silguero and his family were preparing to go to the funeral home on Wednesday after spending some time at the SSGT Willie de Leon civic center waiting to hear from Jailah.

Authorities demanded a DNA sample from the family by swab.

“After the DNA test, I thought it was something bad,” he said.

“About an hour later they called to confirm that he was dead.”

Silguero said that Jailah’s brothers were greatly affected:

“They just want their brother back.”

Jailah Silguero was among 21 people killed, 19 minors and two adults, in Tuesday’s massacre.

Two girls in a class Jackie Cazares and Annabelle Rodriguez are cousins ​​and are in the same room at Robb Elementary School.

Jackie, who made her first communion two weeks ago, was the one to come out, said Polly Flores, who is Jackie’s aunt and Annabelle’s great -aunt.

“She was outgoing, she had to be the center of attention,” Flores said.

“She’s my little diva.”

Annabelle, an honor roll student, was quieter.

But he and his cousin they are unitedSo much so that Annabelle’s twin sister, who was homeschooled, “was always jealous,” Flores said.

“We’re a very close family,” he said.

“It’s heartbreaking.”

A girl who loved her friends Amerie Jo Garza was a friendly 10 year old girl who loved clay Play Doh.

Amerie Jo is “full of life, a witty, always smiling,” her father, Alfred Garza III, said in a brief phone interview.

She doesn’t talk much about school, but she likes to spend time with her friends at lunch time, on the patio during recess.

“He’s very social,” she said.

“He talked to everyone.”

Amerie Jo’s relatives were reunited when the Texas Rangers broke the disgusting news to them on Tuesday night.

The loss of the family came after losing several loved ones to COVID-19 over the past two years.

“We’re barely getting a break, no one is dying,” Garza said.

“Then it happened.”

Garza, who works at a used car dealership in Uvalde, said he was on lunch break when Amerie Jo’s mother told him she couldn’t pick up her son at school because it was closed for emergencies.

“I went straight there and found the excitement,” he said.

She remembers seeing cars lined up in the streets as parents tried to get into the school to pick up their children.

There are police patrols everywhere.

At first, he said he did not think anyone was hurt.

Then he heard that the children had died.

She waited for hours for news about her son.

“I was like in shock,” he said, after listening to the Texas Rangers.

When he got home he started looking at his photos.

“That’s where I kind of let go,” he said.

“I started crying and sobbing.”

‘Bringing the neighborhood together’ Eva Mireles, who is in her 40s, loves teaching children at Robb Elementary, last fourth grade.

Neighbors described him as a kind man who almost always smiled.

“It brings the neighborhood together,” said Javier Garcia, an 18-year-old neighbor who lives side by side.

“I love those kids.”

A cousin Joe Costilla, 40, who lives in the area, said that outside of work, Mireles loves to run marathons and is very athletic.

“We were always together, at the barbecue, she was a wonderful person,” he said, fighting back tears.

They plan to meet on Memorial Day weekend.

Costilla’s mother Esperanza came home to comfort her grandchildren, ages 14 and 10, who knew her well.

“They’re so bad,” he said.

“He’s the kind of teacher Everyone likes”.

‘Tough boy’ José Flores, 10, has a pink T-shirt that says:

“Poor men wear pink.”

His grandfather, George Rodríguez, called him “my little Josesito” and hid a picture of the child in his purse.

Rodriguez, who also lost a nephew in the hunt on Tuesday, attended therapy at the Uvalde civic center but said it offered little pain relief.

“They’re beautiful, innocent kids,” he said.

On the honor roll Xavier Lopez, 10, made the honor roll the day he was assassinated.

He was eager to go home and share the news with his three siblings, but his grandparents said Xavier decided to stay at school to watch a movie and eat popcorn with his classmates.

They remember Xavier as an avid baseball and soccer player with a school girlfriend he chatted with on the phone.

Leonard Sandoval, 54, Xavier’s grandfather, was outside the family home on Wednesday trying to interpret the incomprehensible.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because of? Because of the kids?”

Christina Morales is a reporter covering food and culture news. He joined the Times in 2020, as part of the second generation of newsroom fellows. @Christina_M18 Edgar Sandoval is a reporter for Nacional, where he writes about the people and places of South Texas. He was previously a reporter in Los Angeles, Pennsylvania and Florida. He is the author of The New Face of Small Town America. Report by @edjsandoval John Yoon from The New York Times’ Seoul newsroom. He joined the Times in 2020. @johnjyosa

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